Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Revenge & A Butchers Stall

It’s tough living up to expectations when one is a national of the world’s only super power. Ensuring that the degree of respect one feels is ones due through association is a heavy burden for the individual. This pride makes it very hard for the said individual to admit that there own actions were their undoing while the collateral damage done to others is just their tough luck.

An American associate was the manager of a Korean business employing Filipinos. His knowledge of Korean and Tagalong was to say the best limited and his understanding of the cultural differences was superficial if not hackneyed. The American approach to running the business was the only way he knew and fitting these Korean and Filipino round pegs into the American square hole was increasingly becoming a big ask.

So much so that after five months in the job his most often quoted throw away line was a request for ideas to get himself fired. That this became a self fulfilling prophesy was another home run for positive thought. As so often happens when this homer makes it into the bleachers the prospect of no more monthly pay checks quickly takes the gloss off a recently acquired life style. That the actual dismissal was a messy affair was not surprising although his actions at the time indicated he jumped rather than being pushed and his dropping of an unfair dismissal complaint just reinforced this impression.

When an appeal for his old job fell on deaf ears, revenge was all that was left. In that long stereotyped Kentucky hills pastime he made it his mission to put the business out of business. That his inside knowledge has aided his cause does call into question his managerial expertise by allowing the business to be vulnerable under his watch. If he succeeds the collateral damage will be the Pinoy employees, the Korean owner will just pack up and go home.

To misquote an old saying, you can take the boy out of the trailer but you can’t take trailer out of the boy. Funny but it reminds me of another good ol’ American boy, must be something in the water.

The following pic has nothing to do with any of the above; it is a new style I am working on.

Butchers Stall Guadalupe Market

If you would like to see more from this series pop over to The Expats sister site pissedpoet pics.

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The expat

Henry Bateman is an artist and writer currently living in Australia, a return home after living in the Philippines for 10 years. The Ex Expat, is his blog about the arts (often) and politics (sometimes).
His writing has been published by Crikey.com (Australia), Artslant (US), The Expat Travel & Lifestyle Magazine & The Expat Newspaper (both in the Philippines) and The Western Review (Australia).
He has also had seven solo exhibitions and has had his work shown in 15 group exhibitions as well as 35 theater commissions as a set designer and/or lighting designer.